The rogue militia that has seized control of most of the populated areas in Sudan has looted that country’s national museum. It reportedly sold priceless artifacts to wealthy people in the Middle East and Africa on the black market, offering some artifacts online or on social media. It is using its sales revenue to finance its civil war against Sudan’s military, which was driven out of most of Sudan’s capital city.
This is a huge blow for archeology. People think of Egypt when it comes to archeology, but Sudan is very important, too. For example, “More than 200 pyramids were built in Sudan, as opposed to the 118 pyramids in all of Egypt, during the ancient reign. They were built by members of the Kingdom of Kush, an ancient Nubian civilisation that ruled the areas along the Nile River from 1070 B.C. to 350 A.D. and started even 500 years after the Egyptians.” Mummies were also found in Sudan.
Middle East Eye reports:
Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters have reportedly looted the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum and smuggled some of its artifacts across the country’s southern border. Backed by the United Arab Emirates, the paramilitary RSF has been at war with Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April last year.
The SBC, Sudan’s national broadcaster, reported on Sunday that “a large-scale looting and smuggling operation” affected contents of the museum…the operation took place in the RSF-controlled area earlier this year.
“Satellite images have confirmed that trucks loaded with items left the museum early this year, heading toward the border with South Sudan,” the report said, adding that the trucks were carrying exhibits from the museum….The news outlet said it has obtained footage confirming the sale of the museum’s contents….The RSF was previously accused of looting the museum in April 2023, at the beginning of the war, but it denied the claims and insisted that it was carrying out its responsibility of safeguarding the building and its contents.
According to footage seen by MEE, RSF fighters last year raided the M Bolheim Bioarchaeology Laboratory in Khartoum, where human remains, including bones and skeletons, are thought to date from 3300-3000 BCE.
The National Museum of Sudan is one of the largest and oldest museums in the country. Its collection includes archaeological artifacts from different periods of Sudanese history, from the Stone Age to the Islamic period.
Fighting between the RSF and SAF has displaced more than 10 million people, and brought more than a third of the 48 million population to the brink of famine.
Earlier, the water supply for the region containing one of Sudan’s largest cities (Port Sudan) was destroyed, when a dam collapsed, killing hundreds of people.
Sudan faces the world’s worst famine, with a Dutch researcher predicting that between 6 million and 10 million of Sudan’s 50 million people could die by 2027.
The RSF interfered with harvests in Sudan’s Jazira state, which is “home to one of the largest irrigation systems in the world,” reported CNN. Thousands of farmers fled the RSF into areas controlled by Sudan’s military, which is not very kind to civilians, either.
Tens of thousands of Sudanese have previously died of starvation during the war. Thousands of bodies were left decomposing in morgues in the country’s capital. At least 150,000 civilians were killed in fighting between Sudan’s warring factions.
Frankenstein’s monster has turned on its creator, in Sudan. Over a decade ago, Sudan’s military created the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a genocidal militia it used to wipe out villages inhabited by some African tribes in Sudan’s Darfur region. Now, this Frankenstein’s monster, the RSF, is fighting Sudan’s military in a civil war, and has taken over most of Sudan’s capital region, its breadbasket region, and its vast western expanses. It is slaughtering males from western Sudan’s black African Masalit tribe. And it is turning some women into sex slaves, while raping others.
The RSF committed mass killings and rapes to drive the Masalit ethnic group from Sudan into the neighboring country of Chad. At a single camp for displaced people in Western Sudan, the RSF slaughtered 1600 people, almost all Masalit. It killed many thousands of Masalit in and around the city of El Geneina, the biggest city in Sudan’s West Darfur region.
